It has been a tough week for many SEO plugin users. Numerous users of the Google Analytics Dashboard for WP by ExactMetrics plugin claim to have lost traffic data after updating to version 6.0. Meanwhile, the Yoast SEO and Rank Math plugins produce incorrect canonical URLs when these URLs contain Unicode characters.
Lost Google Analytics data. Users of the Google Analytics Dashboard for WP by ExactMetrics plugin (formerly known as GADWP) have taken to Twitter and the plugin’s support page to report lost data. The issue, first brought to our attention by Dallas-based SEO Joe Youngblood, appears to be triggered after the update to version 6.0 of the plugin. ExactMetrics, which acquired the plugin from developer Alin-Marcu in 2018, stated in the release notes that this version was “rethought from the ground up.”
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The Google Analytics chart above, provided by Youngblood, shows traffic disappearing the day after the plugin update. Reports in the ExactMetrics dashboard began on the same day, but they displayed information associated with the tracking ID of an unrelated site, Youngblood said. He was able to resolve the issue and resume regular tracking via Google Analytics by adding the site’s tracking ID directly to the WordPress theme.
It also works with social media (see here the list of social networks in 2020).
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ExactMetrics did not immediately respond to our request for comment. The number of affected sites and the extent of the loss of analytical data are unclear. Users have also raised concerns about the recently expanded permission requests of the plugin. At the time of publication, the plugin has over one million active installations.
Yoast, Rank Math, and canonical URLs. The canonical URL feature of the Yoast SEO and Rank Math WordPress SEO plugins points to “http://site.com/—/” instead of the designated address when URLs include Unicode characters, according to Iran-based webmaster Shahram Rahbari.
Unicode characters are used in many non-Roman languages, such as Hebrew, Thai, Hangul, Greek, Arabic, and others.
Yoast is aware of the issue and a fix will be included in the next version, said Joost de Valk, founder and CPO of Yoast. Rank Math has also fixed the issue, stating that it “only affected non-English websites where canonical URLs were manually altered.” Source: www.les-clefs-du-net.com.
Why it matters. Not having analytical data means you are blind: you cannot see how people are getting to your site and behaving on it, which affects your ability to interpret trends and make historical comparisons. Of course, this will also impact reporting to clients and stakeholders.
The ExactMetrics plugin displaying someone else’s tracking ID on your site’s dashboard means your data is not your data, and this can also be a security issue.
Canonical URLs help search engines identify original content and make sense of duplicate or syndicated content. If the canonical URL you are trying to direct contains Unicode characters, check the source code of your page to ensure it displays correctly. If it is not correct and you are using Yoast, make sure to update your plugin when the latest version is released and re-register your canonicals.